Need help with raised garden beds!

I am about to start construction on 3 or 4 raised bedds in my yard. here is my question. What is the best material to use and how tall should they be? I have a lot of rabbits in my yard and also 2 large dogs. I am thinking about using paving stones unless I and find some 4X6 ceder. Will 2X6 work just as well?

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We've actually been using cut tree branches and tree trunk (pines were cut down in our neighborhood and left to be picked up) for our raised beds. They are not only pretty but they work so well and its recycling! yay! :)

Cornelia said:

Here's a wicked cool idea for making raised beds on the cheap: Use cedar fence pickets!From a pretty righteous web site called Ana White Homemaker!

I used old bricks to make the enclosures. Then filled it with good topsoil. I cover it with old windows to get seedlings going then later with mesh to keep pests out. Feed and water well. Salad veg worked best...need to repeat sow every 2 weeks to keep the supply coming.

If you look at these raised garden boxes, you can see they are about a foot deep...maybe 18 inches... I can't remember for sure. You're depth will depend on what you want to put in them. My folks grow everything in them, including their corn. But, you may want to actually make them a little deeper as the corn can become a bit unstable in high winds. They didn't dig down in the ground. The sites were cleared, Pop laid weed barrier down and then built the boxes. They have 3 of them and have used them for about 8 years now. Just 2x8 lumber, untreated. Nothing special. But their backyard resembles a jungle in the growing season!

I used salvage bleachers for mine. Each bleacher had three layers, the original 6" cedar, then a 7" overlay of fiberglass. Later two rails were added and a ten inch fiberglass. Each set of cuts gave three boxes, a cedar, 7" and 10" box. I put in about eleven the first year, adding each year. This year I just went and got the materials for thirteen more boxes, and hope to clean out my friends bleacher pile this year and finish up. I have 35 usable boxes, thirteen to finish out, and possibly 15 more to put in the area. They range from 2x3 to 10x4. Trellis materials were all salvage also, and an old hog waterer was recycled into a cold frame. Gardening on the cheap! This year I am also starting to do lasagna mulch around them so I don't have to mow the garden area.

Lynda, I have pics from the last couple of years, and really need to get some for this year. I went back to a discussion I posted some older pics on, and it was really fun to look at them. My garden is much bigger now. I will link you to the discussion, and I am the first post, with attached pics. And...I definitely will get you some pics on here, and there too, of what has happened since the first year... :)

Hey, Troy. I just built raised beds this year. I used 2x6 cedar and 4x4 cedar in the corners. I had the 4x4s cut to 12" lengths and the 2x6s cut to 8' and 4'. Each side of the bed is 2 2x6s tall. You could make the beds 3ft wide instead of 4ft, but don't go wider than that or it's hard to reach across the beds. Use 3" screws to fasten the boards to the 4x4s. You could nail it together, but screws will keep your beds together longer. Drill a pilot hole through the boards and into the 4x4s. It helps to do this with a partner.

You'll need to make a fence around your beds or the rabbits and dogs will make short work of your hard work!

Previously, I've used broken concrete pieces for raised beds. I suppose paving stones would work, too, but I've no experience with that.

For my 1-foot raised beds I use 2"x12"x16' untreated lumber cut into raised bed boxes which are 4'x12'x12". I have four of them now in the back yard. For my 8-inch raised beds I also have two raised beds in the front yard using 2"x8"x16' untreated lumber cut into 4'x12'x8"